Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-08-17
LIFE AND FIRE INSURANCE.
THE CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES IN.
VOLVED,
AN INSURANCE AGENT OUGHT TO
BE BETTER THAN OTHER MEN.

AN INSURANCE AGENT OUGHT tt
BE BETTER THAN OTHER MEN.
TEE GREAT CONFEDERATION 4.
ON THAT DAY WILL YOU BI
FIRE-PROOF!
DIR. TALMAGE's SERMON, SUNDAY, AUG. Z
THE HAMPToNs, August THE Rev. T
Dewitt Talmage's sermon for to-day was
on the important subject OF "Ll1e and Fire
Insurance: the Christian Principles In
volyed." His text was: 'Let him appoint
officers over the land, and take up the fifth
part of the land of Egypt in the seven plen
teous years. Gensis xii, v. "a.
These were the words of Joseph, the pre-,
sident of the first life insurance company
that the world ever saw. Pharaoh had a
dream that distracted him. He thought he
stood on the banks Of the river Nile, and
saw coming up out of the river seven fat,
sleek, glossy cows, and they began to browse
in the thick grass. Nothing frightful about
that. But after that, coming out of the
same river, he saw seven COWS that were
gaunt and starved, and the worst-looking
COWS that had ever been seen in the land,
and in the ferooity of hunger they devoured
their seven fat predecessors. Pharaoh, the
king, sent for Joseph to decipher these mid
night hieroglyphics. Joseph made short
work of it. and intimated the seven fat COWS
that came cut Of the river are seven years
with plenty to eat, the seven emaciated
cows that followed them are seven years
with nothing to eat. 'Now," said Joseph,
siet lis take one. fifth of the corn crop of the
seven prosperous years and keep it as pro-
vision for the seven years in which there
shall be 10 corn crop" The king took the
counsel and appointed Joseph, becauseof
his integrity and public-spiritedness, as the
president OF the undertaking. The farmers
paid one-fifth of their income as a premium.
In all the towns and cities of the land there
were branch houses. This great Egyptian
life insurance company had millions Of dol
lars as assets. After awhile the dark days
came and the whole nation would have
starved if it had not been for the provision
they had made for the future. But now
these suffering families had nothing to do
but 90 up and collect the amount of their
life policies. The Bible puts it in one short
phrase Gin all the land of Egypt there was
bread" I say this was the first life insur-
ancc company. It vas Divinely organized.
1t had in it all the advantages of the "whole
life plan,'' of the ''tontine plan," of the ere
served endowment rlan." and all the other
good plans. We are told that Rev. DR.. An
hate, of Lincolnshire, England, originated
the first life insurance company in 1690.-
No! it is as old as the corn-cribs of Egypt;
and God Himself was the author and orig1-
nator. If that were not so l wonld not take
YOUR time and mine in Sabbath discussion
of this subject. I feel it is theme vital,
and of infinite import, the morals
of life and fire insurance.
About ten or twelve years ago there was
great panic in life insurance which did
GOOD. Under the storm the untrust worthy
and bogus institutions were scattered. while
the genuine were tested and firmly estab-
lished. and where does the Life Insurance
Institution stand to-day? What amount
of comfort, of education, of moral and spir-
itual advantage is represented in the simple
statistic that in this country the life insur-
ance companies in one year paid seven mil
lion dollars to the families CT the bereft; and
in five years they paid three hundred mil
lions of dollars to the families of the berefG;
aud are promising to pay-and hold them
selves in readiness to pay-two thousand
millions of dollars to the families of the
bereft
They have actually paid out more in div
dends and death claims than they have
ever received in p. emiums. know of what
[ speak. The life insurance companies of
This country paid more than seven millions
Of dollars of taxes to the Government i'll
i've years. So, instead of these companies
being indebted to the land, the land is inde-
oted to them. To cry out against life in
sarance because here and there one compa
ny has behaved badly is as absurd as it
would be for a man to burn down a thou
sand acres of harvest field in order to kill
,he moles aud potato bugs-as preposterous
IS man who should blow up crowded
steamer in mid-Atlantic for the purpose of
the barnacles on the bottom of
,he hulk.
But what does the Bible say in regard to
his subject? If the Bible favors the insti-
5ution, I will favor it; if the Bible denounces
it, will denounce it. In addition to the
forecast of Joseph in the text, call to your
attention Paul's comparison. Here he is
one man who, through neglect, fails to sup
port his family while he lives, Or after he
lies. Here is another man, who abhors the
Scriptures, and rejects God. Which Of
hose men is the worse? Will you say the
after? Paul says the former. Paul says
hat man who neglects to care for his
household is more obnoxious than man
who rejects the Scriptures. CHE that pro-
videth not for his own, and especially those
Of his own household, is worse than an in
fdel." Life insurance companies help most
Of us to provide for our families after we are
gone, but, if we have the money to pay the
premiums and do not pay them, we have
no right to expect mercy at the hand of God
in the Judgment. We are worse than Tom
Paine, worse than. Voltaire, and worse than
The Bible declares tive
are worse than an infidel. After the certi-
fcate of death has been made out and thirty
Or sixty days have passed, and the officer
Of a life insurance company comes into the
bereft household, and pays down the hard
cash on an insurance policy, that officer of
the company is performing positively re,
ligious rite, according to the Apostle James,
who says: "True religion and undefled be-
fore God and the Father is this: To visit the
fatherIess and the widow in their affliction,"
and so on. The religion of Christ proposes
to take care of the temporal wants of the
people as well as the spiritual. When
Hezekiah was dying the injunction came to
him: ''Set thy house in order, for thou shalt
die and not live" That injunction in our
day would mean: "Make your will; settle
up your accounts; make things plain; don't
deceive your heirs with rolls of worthless
mining stock; don't deceive them with
deeds for western lands that will never
yield any crop but chills and fevers; don't
leave for them notes that have been out
lawed, and second mortgages on property
that will not pay the first" ''Set thy house
in ORDER" That is, fix up things, SO your
going out of the world may make as little
as possible.
See the lean cattle devoweripg the fat
cattle, and in the time of plenty prepare for
the time of want. The difficulties is, when
men think of their death, they are afraid to
think of it only in connection with their
spiritual welfare, and not of the devastation
in the household which will come because
of their emigration from it. 1t is meanly
selfish for you to be so absorbed in the
heaven to which you are going, that you
forget what is to become Of your wife and
children after you are dead. You can go
out of this world without leaving dollar
and vet die haDpy if YOU could not provide